Field Manual
Units and Army
Nothing is recruited from nothing. Every unit you field was promoted from a lesser one and armed with equipment you built — so your army is only ever as deep as the supply chain behind it.
01 // The principle
An army is a supply chain
Most strategy games let you buy a soldier. Idle Conflict does not. A rifleman is a rookie who was issued a rifle, body armour and ammunition — each of which had to be manufactured or bought first.
The consequence is that force composition is an economic decision rather than a menu choice. Fielding armour means committing a production line to it for as long as it takes, and every unit in the queue is competing for the same materials and the same treasury.
02 // Categories
Four branches
Units fall into four categories, and each is trained in its own operator slot — so you can advance up to four lines at once, independently.
- TroopsThe foundation of every army and the start of most chains. Infantry hold ground, and holding is what wins wars.
- TanksArmour and ground vehicles. Expensive to field and expensive to keep, but they change what an assault can survive.
- AircraftAir power, ranked on its own leaderboard. Contested skies are a separate fight from the one on the ground.
- CarriersNaval vessels and carriers. The slowest branch to build and the one that dictates terms across an ocean.
Unit dossiers
Know what you are fielding
Every unit carries a full dossier: its combat profile, what it costs to train, and the exact chain of units and equipment required to produce one. You can read the whole tree before committing a single cycle to it.
- Attack and defence values per unit
- The full requirement chain, unit by unit and item by item
- Training time and cost before you commit
03 // Training
How a unit gets made
- 01Meet the requirementsA unit needs a lower-tier unit to promote and the equipment to arm it. Both must be in hand before the line will start.
- 02Assign an operator slotFour slots run in parallel, one per branch. A slot works a single order at a time, so slot allocation is a real strategic choice.
- 03Run the cyclesTraining is charged and settled per cycle rather than up front, and continues on the server whether or not you are watching.
- 04Claim and fieldCompleted units join your army and count toward your combat power on the global boards.
04 // Progression
Eight stats, capped at 99
Experience is credited by the server across eight stats — strength, health, strategy, artillery, manufacturing, logistics, intelligence and command — each capped at level 99.
Stats are deliberately the long game: they advance on a steeper curve than your commander level, so maxing one is a far larger undertaking than reaching the level cap. Everything you do — training, production, war — pays into the same ledger, so no activity is wasted effort.
Build your first line
Free to play, in the browser, no download. Pick a nation and start the chain.
Enlist now